Fish Bananas – Banoffee Pie…

The chef, Ian Dowding, who co-created the Banoffee Pie recipe, together with his proprietor at the Hungry Monk restaurant, Jevington, East Sussex … down the road … came out to talk to us about his life in general …

Ian Dowding's - a cook's note book

Now I don't want any comment on the image selected for his book … makes me laugh to think about it together with the title … but I do love artichokes … a summer treat.

Ian talked to us about how he came to being a chef, and how he learnt his trade and then the creation of the delicious infamous Banoffee Pie … oooh so good.

Banoffee Pie - made with a digestive base

He uses a pastry base – me … I'd always go for the digestive biscuit base … but here we go – the English digestive base, or the American Graham cracker base …

... I'm not sure I've ever tasted a Graham cracker … though to me it would be hard to beat the digestive, crushed and mixed with melted butter before being formed into a base.

Digestive Biscuits

Banoffee Pie is delicious … I could easily crave it – but banish the thought … and, though I'm sure it's around, I don't see it … so am not tempted.

What's not to like … digestive crust, boiled cans of condensed milk … I remember doing this for another dessert (coffee mousse) I used to make when I was a youngster …

... the boiling of the cans gives us the goooey toffee base, add sliced bananas, use thick cream (your choice) with a coffee flavouring to cover … and serve … with or without a dusting of coffee …

Camp Coffee
 - coffee syrup

Coffee flavouring when I was growing up – was made with Camp Coffee … for coffee milkshakes and desserts (never coffee per se) … oddly my brother mentioned they'd run out of Camp Coffee for a pudding (as we call them) for a supper party over the Easter weekend … he was noting after the dessert he'd had a very wakeful night overdosed on caffeine!

Ian Dowding's talk starting out in the culinary world – it was interesting to hear his take … and now I have his book, together with Le Repertoire de La Cuisine - which contains a very concise précis of over 6,000 recipes (c/o Escoffier) ... 

... this intrigued me – and no doubt I'll use it to bring some amusement to my posts in future … as I can find 'artichoke bottoms' in it … this is the reference source where I could not find the 'Groër sauce' per my last post …

I must comment on Fish Bananas – Ian has a recipe for them … a meaty fish, bananas, mango chutney … which does sound interesting …

Through the keyhole -
to all you eclipse chasers ... 

That concludes the Fish Bananas and Banoffee Pie post … all tastes to the mill of your delight! And a big thank you to all references in the previous post … Monty Python, JD Salinger's Nine Stories …

Enjoy the Eclipse tonight in that large continental mass over the pond! I do hope the weather plays fair … the experience is well worth it - even if it's only a partial eclipse like the one I experienced 25 years ago …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

WEP Get Togethers # 3 … Fish Bananas …

 

It is April Fool's Day isn't it … so we could have Fish Bananas … I've come across them – more anon … but for now some funnies – other than fishy bananas!

First bi-monthly: June, August, October
and December in 2024

Predictive text cropped up for me today – when I commented on a blogging friend's post … that became a glogging friend (since repeatedly globbing – though could also be a drinking glogging friend as it's a holiday) … how often do words slip through uncorrected, particularly in text form on the phone …

Beech tree - happily living on ... many lives,
with an undergrowth of Spring cyclamen

When I was on the Committee as the dinner administrator (see my post 30 January 2023) we'd wanted to know the dinner menu as the Ukrainian Ambassador was our guest speaker and we needed to ensure the evening went smoothly.

The hotel sent up the menu for us … including a chicken dish:

"Sauteed supreme of Chicken in a Groer sauce, caramelised apples, thyme scented wild rice with chanteney carrots”

The wise old owl typing here -
sensibly realised she'd need
a photo of the guarding owl

Fine … but I didn't recognise Groer as a sauce – I checked in Mrs Beeton, in “Louis Saulnier's Le Repertoire de la Cuisine book”, on the net … nothing.

I did dig a little further – but the only thing that popped out was an Austrian Cardinal, who served as Archbishop of Vienna from 1986 – 1995.

He DID NOT have a sauce named after him – his only claim to fame was as a paedophile … he denied those allegations unto his death … I had to laugh at the sauce's name though - I'm glad I picked that one up!

Deer statue ... 

The next menu also had – to me – a glaring error in it … which had gone from the hotel to the Chair, to the administrator for the dinner bookings, back via the same route to the hotel for printing out the menu card put on the dinner tables … no editing or checking …

Vegetarian option: Mushroom, leak and broccoli short crust pastry pie, roasted vegetables and seasonal vegetables.

Still Life with Leeks by Carl Schuch
(1846 - 1903)

The Leek Pie was very tasty … but I'm glad it was leek, the vegetable, and not a plumber's leaky pie!

I had a lovely Easter day over with my brother in the still very wet Alfriston … with roast lamb, an Easter egg hunt in the garden – as shown … with family and friends … all in all a good last day of March.

Banana Wrasse - to be found from
Sri Lanka to the Hawaiian islands

Happy Spring and I do feel easier and ready for the longer days ahead … as Denise mentions life is flashing by ... to one all happy thoughts …

(PS I used to put in diacritical marks ... but omitted them here) 

and the other thing re Groer ... was it should have read Cider sauce ... 

# 3 WEP Together from the administrators ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Hope in the soul …

 

I'm sure most of the world would prefer to have peace and quiet to live their lives … Emily Dickinson wrote this thoughtful poem …

White Feather

"Hope is the Thing with Feathers”

Hope is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I've heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea:

Yet – never - in extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

by Emily Dickinson c 1861

Blackbird - who sings so wonderfully
as we move from winter into spring

With Easter at the weekend … let's think for ourselves and look to happier times ahead …

Spring meadow heralding happier times, I hope

as Emily poetically writes …

Hope perches in the soul

Happy, peaceful and understanding times to you all, as we move into the second quarter of 2024 ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Head Space – with rabbit holes …

 

My mojo is beginning to reappear and after Easter it will be back in full glowing hex colours … who put the hex on colour? … is one rabbit hole – I'll leave you to look.

Who Put the Hex in Colour
Streamline Publishing

For me … RGB (colour) triplets (and techie stuff) defeat me before we even start … but I know a few of you understand … or hopefully are as interested in the ephemeral state I seem to operate in …

Another rabbit hole I came across is a news broadcast on BBC Radio4, the Briefing Room – Election specials, discussing big issues of the day in different parts of the world. My hook was about the South African elections to be held at the end of May, which makes it interesting to me … but I may well listen to the others …

Southern Africa

… continuing with friends there and here who visit or live in other local southern African countries – Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia … Africa - a country where a lot of change has happened in the last thirty plus years – historical happenings …

Then again on the Beeb on Wednesday – it was a busy day! - The Social Dilemma popped up … there's a Netflix docudrama, which I'd like to watch – but am not a Netflix subscriber … however I then found this …

Tristan Harris, who used to work for Google as a design ethicist, and Aza Raskin, but who now along with others question the design of social media and its effect on 'us' …

… via the Centre for Humane Technology … its ongoing and future effect on humanity's interests … they envision a world that respects attention, improves well-being, and strengthens communities.

First global AI Safety Summit
held in 2023 in the UK

Who'd have thought my mojo would return via a bubbling interest in Artificial Intelligence … that's what's bringing it (my mojo) to life!

However to bring us back to earth … I was out for supper with a friend who when I mentioned AI to her laughed, as to her she went her midwife way of Artificial Insemination … which set a slightly different tone to my thought process …?!

Sprouting Purple
Broccoli

Thanks for reading … more about Artificial Intelligence to follow …

BBC Briefing Room link ... 

Centre for Humane Technology ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Indeterminate life ...

 

I came across this quote via the recent blog entry 'The Strange Science of Zombie Fungi' – courtesy of Maria Popova's 'The Marginalian':

'A mind not be chang'd by Place or Time' – John Milton from Paradise Lost (Book I, line 234 … if I've counted right!).

"The mind is its own place”

Mother's Day lunch - we'd have had roast
potatoes ... and now my mind is on lunch!

This has been my head space … while I've pottered around chattering away to myself! - happy in my own little way - as I pretend to gear my own self up to being sensible and progressing with things needing to be done. Also sorting a few things out that took forever … patience, at times, is not my virtue ...

No excuse – I've been lazy – which of course now means I'm dithering around trying to catch one of those tails to put some salt on it … perhaps I can actually come back into this world and put muddling through behind me … there's mental hope – but that headspace is another thing!

Blue Tit - enjoying Spring

Anyway after a gloomy International Women's Day and Mothering Sunday (our Mother's Day here in the UK – tied into the Church's calendar – dating back to the 8^th century) … we are still enjoying mists or rain – no doubt the plants are appreciative … certainly the blue tits are filling out, as they chunter around in the lime tree outside.

I remember back twenty five years ago … we had Mother's Day with my my mother, and my brother's MIL, over in Alfriston (where the floods have recently been) … when the Canadian family were over …

John Tenniel's 1890 illustration
for Alice's Adventures
in Wonderland

… there were lots of us … 15 or so … it was so warm we moved outside and had our Mothering Sunday roast lunch in the garden …

I did find some interesting women I wanted to mention and thus rabbit holes I fell into … but I think I'll leave them for another day …

Dante Gabriel Rossetti's portrait
of Swinburne (1862)

I did come across an article on Algernon Charles Swinburne's early work (1857 – 1871): 'The Female Archetypes' … which might make interesting reading for one or two of you …

It's drier and brighter today … thanks for your kind thoughts … and care – I'm just about up and running – by next week definitely …

From a friend's garden - the
hyacinths I gave her a few years ago

The Marginalian - The Strange Science of Zombie Fungi 

Paradise Lost - c/o Poets.org  

Disstheses on Swinburne's 'The Female Archetypes' c/o Louisiana State University  (NB a pdf)

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

WEP Get Togethers # 2 … winter blues …

 

February was not the most brilliant – not helped with lots of that wet stuff, excess wind … too many things that could have been done quickly took forever … which frustrates me to say the least, apart from being so time wasting …

It says it all .... 

March has come in favouring its name … after the Roman god of War … but that was this morning – this afternoon we have blue skies, big whitish cumulus clouds and some sun – bliss … till more tears drop forth from those towering clouds …

Statue of Mars from the
Forum of Nerva, 2nd C 

There's a wormy moon around the 25th March … a way off yet – and who knows what the weather holds or life for that matter … if only … if only … kindness and peace could prevail …

… but the days are getting longer and then the northern hemisphere will have its 2024 heyday for that wonderful period of longer days than nights.

I let the worm rest in its blue-cheese delight

I'm feeling the blues … but also feel the shackles are coming off – and easier days loom ahead … I do intend to sort and clear out the flat – last year with the high blood pressure I felt maggoty and didn't feel inspired to do much – also to get posts ready for the blog …

Daffodil - the flower for March

Denise says let us know what's burning in your heart … my desire to leave the claggish congelation behind … and to enjoy March and the year ahead in an easier more settled state of mind …

This is where my brother lives – it's often flooded around there … and they've been without water, not for long thankfully …

Alfriston - where my brother lives,
and where he gave his niece away, when
she married in the summer

That's it for now – I have lots of other posts to write up – more sparkly than this one … but I'm here and posting # 2 for the WEP Get Togethers … happy days to you all …

PS Could someone let me know what 'the C box' is ... Denise asks that we put the link into the C box ... I'm out of it!!! .... thanks!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Five hundred years of blogging …

 

Sadly when Write Edit Publish came to its end … understandable in many ways – the administrators have done a wonderful job over the years and I was only around for about half the time – Denise, Renee, Nila, Laura, Olga, Jemi suggested that we write something at the end of each month … as WEP: Get Togethers … which I will do next week. So to continue my thoughts on the start of blogging … posted 1^st February.

Get Together team 

In the 1500s a Frenchman popularised the essay as a literary genre – otherwise known today as blogging in a short form …

Jorn Barger

But a question arose from Karen – where did the term 'blog' come from? I'd always heard it came from the web and a ship's logbook (hence blog) … which made 'common sense' to me …

So see the article on Jorn Barger – perhaps the first proper blogger as a blogger – he coined the term weblog ...

I found a book on Michel Montaigne (1533 - 1592) that will make interesting reading, who appears today to have popularised the essay as a literary genre.

Optical Fibres

I've been absent from the net for most of this week – the angst of not being on line was somewhat sad – I was lost - I thought I was only going to be off for a few minutes – the telecoms company informed me … well a few days later I'm back … so I was very unprepared …

I needed a weblog to record 'the doings' but I will not waste your time … I'm now on fibre broadband – which gives me comfort (I think!) ...

Hurricane seas

… but the Beaufort Scale  kicked in down here … yesterday it was bucketing and wind buffeting … I will not go down to the seas, it will be very lonely down there … Poem by John Cooper Clarke

Well it's now Friday … and things are still being sorted out – I seem to have done something silly re my desktop … life for the 'brainless' goes on … just had a long phone call from a friend who's not been that well … so now I'm rushed even more!!

The story of how the web
really got started ... 

At least I'll have got a post up – even more muddled than usual … I hope to sort things out and attempt to catch up in the coming week … life is flexing me a little!

I bought this book back at the turn of the century ... ie 2000AD ...

Happy weekend from a chilly, blustery, heavy showery day …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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